Aerodrome Primary School

Effective Feedback Policy

Agreed by Governors: 26/02/2020 Review Date: September 2021

2

Pupil voice ‘If you get to respond, you always get to have another go’

Guiding principles The purpose of feedback is to close the gap in children’s learning

Feedback should indicate: the desired goal (Where are we going?), evidence of a learner’s current positon (How am I doing?) and some understanding of how to close the gap between the two (Where next?)

A prerequisite for giving effective feedback is having clear learning intentions and success criteria.

To effectively close the gap, you need to communicate the intended goal to the student

To be effective, feedback should cause thinking to take place

Effective feedback is feedback that learners can understand and use

Effective feedback will flourish when it is ‘ok’ for learners to make mistakes. For learners to feel that mistakes are welcome, there needs to be a high level of trust in the classroom.

Feedback: adult to learner, learner to learner and learner to self should be part of the school culture

Feedback should empower learners to make progress and drive their own learning

Regular and consistent effective feedback, makes learners assessment capable

It is important to use praise, but we should not confuse praise with effective feedback

Consistency in feedback between adults, classes and learners is paramount

Learners should have regular time to respond to feedback

Learning is a journey made up of bigger and smaller steps- which should be shared with learners

John Hattie’s research has used effect sizes to put influences that can impact on a learner on a continuum to enable us to see those that have the greatest impact. From the research, we know that 95-98% of what was studied was positive and learning occurred. An effect size of 0.4 = 1 year’s progress for 1 year’s input. Effective feedback has an effect size of 0.7 (almost doubling the rate of progress).

3

Aims of the policy

To give consistency across the school as to how the guiding principles are implemented to impact positively on learners.

To ensure children take pride in their work and their achievements. This policy should support this.

Feedback may consist of a dialogue between the adult and the child, a group or a class. This is the most effective when it is verbal feedback.

Conferencing enables opportunities for:

teachers to agree next steps and individual targets with children;

specific advice for improvement to be given;

teachers to follow up agreed targets with the child to evaluate progress;

children to comment upon their work as it is marked;

dialogue between teacher and child;

individual strategies for improvement to be provided Conferencing or marking in the presence of the child is usually the most effective method of marking. This is the practice we endeavour to use whenever possible through guided group work or 1:1 conferencing with children. All pieces of learning should receive feedback as soon as possible to ensure it is effective. This is the responsibility of all teaching staff. The type and method of feedback depends on the context. At times, this will be conferencing with a limited written transcript and at other times may be detailed written marking. Distance marking may have limited value with younger children, but is often essential when marking large amounts of work. Regular feedback and acknowledgement of learning helps to build the essential trusting relationships needed for effective feedback.

4

Guiding principles into practice

1. Consistency and clarity To ensure learners understand feedback and so that there is consistency across the school, the following systems, symbols and codes used should be agreed and understood by teachers and children;

EYFS Written feedback is completed using termly pen colours

Autumn= Red

Spring= Blue

Summer= Purple Green pen response opportunities are immediate alongside the child and reflect next steps e.g. letter formation, punctuation, HFW, vocabulary

Making observations

Foundation Stage Every adult is expected to regularly mark the children’s work and respond verbally to support progress. In Nursery and Reception, this takes the form of observations written or documented via the IPad and entered into the child’s Learning Journey Folder. In the Foundation Stage the Teaching Assistants and Early Years Educators are expected to share the workload with the teachers. This means that they are responsible for making observations, entering them into the appropriate section of the Learning Journey Folder and be able to identify the next step for that child. EYFS Making an Observation: Observations should always be objective and be based on what the child did and said. Observations should:

o Be positive o Be factual- write what is actually happening o Contain the child’s voice o Be specific o Only be for new learning for that child o Link to the EYFS curriculum (Development Matters) o Where possible, be in child initiated learning rather than adult led.

Format for the observation

o Initial of member of staff observing o Date each observation o Describe the context or the activity with the learning area code o Describe what he child actually did and said, use quotes to document the child’s

language o Use codes to clarify if the learning was independent (I) or adult supported (AS)

including the nature of the support on work samples

5

Key Stage One In the Autumn term of Year One, all teaching staff are expected to continue Foundation Stage practice by making regular observations and adding to the child’s Learning Journey Folder.

Key stage 1 and 2

All work by the children should be in pencil, blue or black pen.

Marking and writing by the adult should be in purple pen

Children’s responses to any marking should be in green pen

Adult response to the child’s green pen reply should be in blue pen.

Highlight in yellow any area of the child’s learning that is meeting the success criteria and highlight in green any area that needs development.

The following codes are used to summarise achievement:

B = Beginning to achieve the learning intention

D = Developing their understanding and Learning Intention achieved.

S = Understanding is Secure and can be applied to different contexts.

The teacher should ensure that these marking codes are on display in their classroom and that all adults and children are aware of them (see appendix 1). The assumption is that learning is completed independently unless otherwise indicated by the following codes:

AS = Adult Supported (include the nature of support)

PS = Peer Support Where working 1:1 or in a small group with learners these codes may be used: VF = Verbal Feedback given C = Conferencing

(subject of verbal feedback e.g. tense)

6

Where am I going? Planning of clear learning intentions and success criteria is essential for effective feedback and therefore should be prioritised in the planning process. In every lesson, teachers share the Learning Intention (WALT) with the children and will establish the success criteria using a variety of AfL strategies. Most commonly:

Process criteria

I can statements

Tool kits

Steps to success

What makes good

What I need Success criteria is used to break down the learning intention in conjunction with the children. These should break down the skills and/or knowledge needed in order to achieve the Learning Intention. ‘Arrow WALTs’ For KS1 and KS2, standardised arrow WALTs are used in English, Maths and Context learning which detail the intended learning and the success criteria (see appendix 2). English and Context learning:

Maths learning:

How am I doing? Where next? Throughout the lesson, learners are encouraged and expected to assess themselves against the success criteria. Learners should use green pen. This is so that they are able to track their own progress during a lesson therefore helping to make them assessment capable learners. In Maths, additional strategies are used to ensure that learners have feedback as quickly as possible in terms of their fluency so that they can make an evidenced based decision about moving their own learning on. This includes giving learners the answers to fluency calculations to ‘self-mark’.

7

Between lessons, all adults are expected to use the arrow WALTs to give feedback to learners about how well they are doing (see appendix 3). Showing success: This could be via the teacher highlighting (see guidance above) or writing a positive comment related to the child’s work that links clearly to the success criteria and the child’s individual target(s). The combined use of the arrow WALTs as well as the highlighting, will indicate what has been achieved and the next steps. Some teachers may wish to expand by using other ways to summarise this e.g. using 2 stars and a wish (see appendix 4).

2. Responding to feedback Response is more effective when it is completed through conferencing-allowing immediate changes to be made. Where this is not possible, any independent response to feedback should be structured and skilfully guided. In Year 1, independent response may be focused on simple errors e.g. HFW spelling.

Teachers should ensure that children are given specific time to respond to written comments and to make improvements from the prompts that the teacher provides;

Comments are clear and the language used is accessible;

Specific strategies for improvement are given The child should respond to the improvements by editing their piece of learning in green pen and the improvement should also appear in their next piece of recorded learning. The adult should then respond to this in blue pen to let the child know that all of their editions have been seen and are correct or that further development is required.

Mistakes vs misunderstandings

Feedback should be in response to the type of error that has been noted:

Mistakes

something a student can do and does normally do correctly

The expectation is that mistakes can be independently addressed and corrected by the learner

Writing

Misunderstandings

something the learner has not understood or mastered yet

The expectation is that the misunderstanding is addressed through further focus group teaching, intervention or 1:1 teaching.

Dickens uses adjectives to present Pips feelings in Great Expectations.

At Miss Havishams house estella is rude to Pip and Pip says he feels

“humiliated” And “hurt”. This suggests he feels out of place and is

unaware of Estellas social class is higher than his.

8

In this example, the learner has failed to use an apostrophe correctly on three separate occasions suggesting an underlying misunderstanding. In contrast, the missing capital letter on “estella” is the only incorrect use of capitals and could be classed as a mistake.

Maths Example 1 Example 2

In the first calculation, the learner has miscalculated (5X6=30 then 34-30 = 2). If there is evidence that the pupil does understand the method previously or in different examples, then this should be classed as a mistake. In the second example, the pupil has repeatedly forgotten to include the ‘remainders’ in the calculations. This would be classed as a misunderstanding and should be addressed through focus group teaching.

Tools for feedback In addition to the arrow WALTs, in English, writing checklists should be used to give feedback. The writing checklists focus on what should be included in all writing and should be used by adults and learners to support written and verbal feedback (see appendix 5 and 6). For learners working at greater depth in writing, feedback linked to the writing checklist should focus on effect, impact, purpose and intent rather than accuracy. In Maths, end of year expectations checklists should be used. The child friendly checklists will be updated and monitored throughout the year, when pertinent evidence becomes available to show a child has met the targets on the sheet. This will be an ongoing process between the child and teacher so that everyone is aware of the child's progress, next steps and the teacher can plan and teach according to the needs of the individual (see appendix 7) In context learning, the learning should be assessed by adults and children using ‘arrow walts’ which break down learning and every fortnight there is more detailed feedback given. (see appendix 8)

9

Every fortnight, children self-assess learning within their context: The skills I have learnt are… The knowledge I have gained is… I have enjoyed… My next steps are…

Teachers should give feedback to pupils by commenting on what pupils have said and identifying a next step.

Peer assessment When peer assessing, children should agree the points for improvement together before recording any changes. Children should not mark each other’s work unless otherwise agreed by each party. Tools for feedback should be used during this process also.

The process of developing peer assessment and self-assessment needs to be tackled

in stages. Initially children need to have the process modelled for them, using

examples of work that demonstrate the intended learning outcomes, either from

previous teaching or examples from other children's work. These can be used with the

whole class, for example on a whiteboard, to critique the responses and model the

approach before expecting children to work on each other's or their own work. It is

helpful to 'think aloud' while critiquing so that children develop the necessary language

and approach.

Commenting on other children's work has clear benefits, developing self-esteem and

the skills of self-advocacy.

10

Time needs to be built in to the lesson for structured reflection, for example using comments such as the following.

'Find one example you are really proud of and circle it. Tell the person next to you

why you are pleased with it.'

'Decide with your talk partner which of the success criteria you have been most

successful with and which one needs help or could be taken even further.'

(After whole-class sharing for a minute or two) 'You have three minutes to identify

two places where you think you have done this well and read them to your partner.'

'You have five minutes to find one place where you could improve. Write your

improvement at the bottom of your work.'

'Look back at the problems you have solved today. Where were you successful?

What approach did you take?'

Precision Teaching Precision Teaching is a method of planning a teaching programme to meet the needs of an individual child or young person who is experiencing difficulty with acquiring or maintaining some skills. It has an inbuilt monitoring function and is basically a means of evaluating the effectiveness of what is being taught. It can be used in early years, primary and secondary settings and can be applied to areas of the curriculum that can be broken down into clear objectives, eg: numeracy and literacy skills. Why use precision teaching? ■ Children and young people vary in their rate of learning, how much they

remember over time and in their ability to use these skills in new situations. ■ Although some children pick up new skills almost ‘incidentally’, others need

intensive adult support. ■ Successful learning requires skills to become automatically retrievable and to

be able to be applied to new situations. How do I implement Precision Teaching? ■ Identify an area where your child’s skills are beginning to develop but where

they still need a bit of work to improve / sharpen their skills. For example, pick an area where they are still making a few mistakes or a skill where they may eventually get the right answer but it takes them a long time to do so.

■ Choosing this carefully is important because if you pick something that is totally new or they find far too difficult, this exercise can become frustrating.

■ When picking a skill to focus on, you might want to just focus on one area (e.g. only addition or only subtraction) or you may want to mix up the types of sums. You may also want to play about with the difficulty of the sums. For some children, giving them sums where they have to add numbers where the answer is no greater than 5 might be enough (e.g. 3 + 1 = ?; 2 + 2 = ?). For older children, the target might be to add / subtract two digit numbers (e.g. 19 + 22 = ?; 37 – 14 = ?)

11

Appendices Appendix 1: Marking symbols for display

12

13

14

15

Appendix 2: Marking symbols for display English and Context learning

Maths learning

16

Appendix 3: Examples of arrow WALTs being used Context learning:

English:

Maths:

17

Appendix 4: Examples of marking to show success, green pen response English:

18

19

20

Maths (including self-marked fluency)

21

22

23

Appendix 5: Writing checklists

24

25

Appendix 6: Examples of marking using the writing checklists

26

27

Appendix 7: Maths end of year expectations checklist ‘expected’ examples

28

29

30

Appendix 8: Fortnightly context learning self-assessment sheet KS2